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Question: If in the end the whole path we have gone through becomes canceled, then what’s the point of all the actions we make today?

Answer: How else could you reach absolute love? How else could you build it if every subsequent level is built based on the previous one?

The entire path you have gone through becomes canceled similar to how you reveal that this entire world is imaginary. When you attain the end of correction and become part of the original point of creation, then the first state (the beginning of creation) and the third state (the end of correction) merge as equals. And the second state (the process of correction) ceases to exist. It becomes part of the third state together with the first state, as if none of it ever happened and all of it just seemed so to us!

All the changes took place only in our sensations. It was necessary for us to go through all of these states in order to be able to understand the Creator and feel Him, become attached to Him, and merge with Him.

All the worlds (Olamot) mean concealments (Alamot), and these worlds or concealments disappear! They were necessary only in order to create this gradually increasing concealment; the problems and suffering awaken us in order for us to gradually start attaining, from below upwards, the one and only existing state in reality. Nothing exists besides it.

All the states we go through are necessary for making discernments. They are 125 levels of discerning the perfect state in which you always exist. You are simply unable to attain it fully all at once, and therefore you do it gradually, in parts, each time understanding and feeling more.

It’s as if you’re “eating this meal” in parts; that is how you ascend up the levels of the worlds. In reality, these worlds do not exist other than in your perception. As soon as you attain everything, there is no more need for them.

However, don’t they seem to exist in me because I ascended up through them until the end of correction, until the final unity? That’s right, but this is only your sensation, the path of attainment. However, in reality there is only one perfect state, existing before and after you: Malchut, filled by the Light of Infinity, both in the very beginning and at the very end.[31637]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

We have to attain our nature, including all the transgressions and mistakes, because otherwise we won’t be able to ascend above them and attain the Pharaoh in us in order to understand how much he is in our way. It is through him that we want to come to serve the Creator.

What does it mean, “Let my people go”? Who lets me go? It says that Pharaoh even accompanies the nation of Israel during the exodus from Egypt. That is to say, we have to go through various discernments in order to be ready for the exodus, and then we come out! Pharaoh holds us back only until we acquire forces and become ready.

When we break through the barrier of the spiritual world and pass the Machsom, it means that we have a desire and force for it, but if we don’t have the desire yet, then we cannot pass it. Therefore, Pharaoh only helps us with his opposition!

That is how we ascend above all the obstacles, and by virtue of that, we acquire the force of bestowal, opposition to egoism, the firmness of the screen, desire. We increase our desire and aspiration to spirituality. All the “anti-forces,” all the disturbances and suffering are revealed only in order to strengthen us and teach us.

That is how we should view every state we are in, any thought or sensation that naturally comes to us, knowing that it is precisely the place for our work. We do not contain anything at all that can be left as is, uncorrected.

First we reveal the degree of Hafetz Hesed (desiring only bestowal), ascending above our egoistic thoughts and desires and admitting that they are transgressions and mistakes; we reveal that everything comes from the one upper force, bestowal. Then we acquire the bonds of love, performing actions of reception for the sake of bestowal, and through them we start to attain what is called love.

In the end we ascend to a state called Keter, which does not belong to matter or anything that originates beneath it. It contains only the primordial cause of what happens below. Everything that happens beneath Keter until Malchut itself is necessary only in order to give Malchut the opportunity to ascend back and become similar to Keter.

Therefore, in the end we establish the same attitude to the Creator as He has to us, above our matter and everything taking place in us. Then we do not retain any connection to everything we went through, experienced, decided, did, or revealed, not from His end nor from ours.

All of this becomes absolutely canceled and only His initial, fundamental attitude to us and ours to Him is revealed. That means that we reveal everything only inside Keter, in the Light of love, when we have absolutely no care about any action or gift, whether we receive for the sake of bestowal or bestow for the sake of bestowal. All the differences disappear and everything merges in the attainment of unity.

Matter and the form of reception cease to exist because they were initially created by the Creator only in order to enable us to attain that original, primordial point with which the Creator began creation.[31640]From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

Writings of Rabash, “He Who Has Not Made An Effort On Shabbat Eve…”: The main efforts are made in the work against knowledge, when a person does not know for what sake he must work. This is very difficult.

Question: Why is it so difficult?

Answer: Because it completely contradicts everything that I am. In reality, this is not just very difficult, but impossible. I won’t reach success here with my own forces because I don’t have any means to make any action in my mind or feelings that is above knowledge.

I always act based on my own thoughts and desires. Can it be otherwise? What else does a person have?

Nevertheless, in order to make the right action, one must be equipped with the mind of the Creator rather than creation. That means I need His head instead of my own. But how can I achieve that?

That is why Kabbalists give us advice. When a person wants to serve someone great, the group, or the friends, he tries to turn off his mind and his feelings, accepting the mind and feeling of the neighbor instead. With the help of these exercises, we then build the same attitude to the Creator.

A small person always lacks a “mind” or understanding. He does not know how to become similar to the Upper One and does not understand Him. That is why he has to receive or accept a part of the Upper One’s mind. Working with the mind of the Upper One instead of your own is faith above reason.

Why “faith”? Couldn’t it just say, “the mind of the Upper One”? The matter is that the lower one acquires the head of the Upper One, rejecting his own mind in the quality of Hafetz Hesed, the quality of bestowal. Otherwise he cannot do this. He cannot see the action of the Upper One and become similar to Him.

The most effective means enabling one to acquire wisdom and greatness of a new level is to try and neutralize one’s mind and feeling in order to accept the mind and feeling of the neighbor, who is higher than me. Otherwise I grow only in the animate part of me, growing quantitatively rather than qualitatively.[31584]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, Writings of Rabash

Question: Can the reading of The Book of Zohar help us acquire a general, universal perception? Would it not cancel out the uniqueness of each human being?

Answer:What uniqueness can there be at the moment? What human being?.. We are talking about your “beast” which we have to turn into a Human Being.

You have a “donkey” (“donkey” in Hebrew is “Hamor,” from the word “Homer” – “matter”), and there is only one spiritual spark in it. We want to help you extract this spark from the “donkey” and connect it with the rest of the sparks shimmering above the herd of “donkeys.”

Imagine seven billion “donkeys” and a twinkling spark above each of them. We want to unite these sparks together and then build from them Man similar to the Creator. Only then will they acquire a general perception of the collective soul of Adam HaRishon.[31596]From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

When I came to study to Rabash, I was 33. I was a strong and successful person; I had a family, house, and successful business. I asked him, “Now I am going to invest all my life into you. I will be next to you until the very end because otherwise it is impossible to learn anything. I am ready to go for it, but how can I be sure that I am in the right place?”

Rabash replied that I had every right to ask this question. However, I have to choose what teacher I want to cling to by myself. Nobody should interfere or influence my decision. He said: “Go and check out other places!”

But after you make your decision and choose your place, you should cast away any doubt about it and not swing from side to side in the middle of the path. You cannot be under any other influence but your teacher’s.

In other words, if you become my student, you are obliged to receive only my spirit and not to listen to anybody else. After all, you are going to develop and it is forbidden for a person to listen to other opinions during his growth. [31423] From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

Question: What should we do with the people who study the material independently and come with established, self-imposed “axioms” with which they confuse other students?

Answer:The group should isolate itself in its Kabbalistic center like an embryo in the mother’s womb. A developing soul needs to be protected. It must be surrounded with love and care like an embryo or a baby, by building a nurturing atmosphere around it, similar to “Noah’s ark.”

While students have not yet reached spiritual revelation and don’t quite understand what they are doing and where they are going, they get tossed from side to side, from state to state because each time new systems are formed within us. And while we are constructing ourselves, we continue going through unstable states; hence, we cannot be under the influence of several factors, but only one.

Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech in Celebration of the Conclusion of The Zohar” that if a student doesn’t cleave to the teacher, like an embryo clings to the mother, and doesn’t adhere to the upper one, then he doesn’t advance. This law rules in the spiritual world as well as the material one while we are in the preparation stage and work with our egoistic desires.

If a student doesn’t conform, nothing will help. He may be very smart and have outstanding abilities, but he won’t reach spiritual attainment. Hence, the sages said: “A thousand [disciples] enter the class, but only one comes out to the Light.” And the only reason for this is negligence, reluctance to accurately follow the spirit of the teacher, the person that passes spirituality to you.

I myself don’t need this in the least; you know how I loathe any kind of worship. But a student has to develop such an attitude. At the very beginning of the path, one has to make up his mind, according to the principle: “A person learns where his heart desires.” So how can you allow someone to enter your center, your home, and confuse you? I would never allow it.

We still cannot determine who is right and wrong, everything is relative. And if you wish to advance spiritually, don’t trust anyone; you must choose the source you want to drink from on your own. Everyone must unilaterally select a teacher who will answer his questions and meet his expectations, and who is qualified to guide him or her on the path of spiritual growth. [31428] From Lesson 2, Convention at the Arava Desert 12/31/10

Our entire work is to gradually acquire the force of bestowal and attain the force of the upper wisdom (Hochma) in it. In other words, we need to acquire the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) clothed in the Light of Hassadim (Mercy).

Sometimes we don’t succeed, and then the force of Hassadim which we were supposed to obtain from “peaceful waters” turns into flood waters. We drown in them, and then a renewal occurs, and the surfacing Reshimot (spiritual records) help us to continue on our path.

This happens in every state: A person may go by way of faith above reason and succeed, but if he is neglectful and doesn’t arrange his environment to support him, he falls into violation, a transgression (sin), and sinks into a broken Reshimo rather than walking above it. And later, in a second attempt, he realizes it correctly.

This is the way we progress. The Torah says: “There is no righteous man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). He has experienced the sin, the evil inclination created by the Creator, which unfolds anew in each new stage. On the other hand, if he realized his Reshimot as a righteous person, ascending by way of faith above reason to Yesod over Malchut, then he acted correctly.

The successful realization of Reshimot clearly depends on whether or not a person has prepared all the necessary conditions: the environment, the studies, and all the other means that are the foundation for success.

Success itself lies in faith above reason, upon when a person in the group can realize Reshimot in relation to the group, so that eventually he can do the same in relation to the Creator. The “Creator” is a phenomenon that occurs on a deeper level and is attained in the vessels (Kelim) of the group.

A person always has an opportunity to collect all the components and arrange the necessary tools to “build an ark,” “install a tabernacle,” and, in general, be prepared for anything that happens. He acts in full awareness of what is occurring while continuing to examine himself, and he is finally able to reach the Creator through the group.

He transforms his 613 desires from reception to bestowal, adding “the seven counsels of the sages” to them, thereby multiplying the Reshimot, the details of perception in him, by 620 times. This is how a person builds the whole Kli. [31127]From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Essence of the Work in Torah and Mitzvot

All theMitzvotthat are written in the Torah or the accepted ones, which the Patriarchs established, although they are mostly actions [of a person in this world] or words [that need to be uttered] [thereby fulfilling the commandments], they [commandments, that is, advices] are all to correct the heart [one’s desires], “for the Lord searches [wants us to correct] all hearts, and understands all the [egoistic] inclinations of the thoughts [intentions].” – Rav Abraham Eben Ezra, Yesod Morah, p. 8b [30124]

Question:I want to escape “from Egypt,” from my ego. How can I stay in this fear of not falling back into my egoistic desires once again? How can I build an ever stronger screen each time, capable of withstanding the immense pleasure of bestowal so that it does not turn to receiving once again?

Answer: Invest in the Light as much as possible. This means to invest in the connection with others since the Light is revealed in the connection between souls.

Once, we were in a completely different state. We were together in a system of a single soul where all of our souls were completely connected with each other, and the Light of Infinity filled them without any limits. This state was called the “world of Infinity,” one desire called “one soul” completely filled by the Light.

Afterward, this desire broke apart and scattered into small fragments like a plate that smashed into bits, and there was no connection at all between them. That is why all of the fulfillment which used to be in this “plate,” all of this Light, disappeared. If you glue this “plate” back together, you begin to feel the fulfillment in it.

The whole problem lies in the fact that there is no vessel (Kli) in which you can reveal the fulfillment. The Light is around the “plate,” but it cannot be revealed because there is no connection between its pieces, and they cannot hold the Light.

Therefore, all of our work lies in connection. I must be ready to unite with others, and then I will feel the Light which is revealed inside our unity.

How can I reach unity? Just the thought of it immediately strips me of any desire. Suppose it seems to me that I want to unite with others. Then, I begin to realize that my desire is completely not toward this. First of all, I have to reveal how broken apart I currently am, how far from unity with others. I do not want it, and I even hate it.

In this whole process, until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), we reveal how opposite we are to unity, how much we hate it, and how we are ready for anything but this. Even if we are already in the spiritual world, over the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality), at each degree there are states (Klipot, shells) when you hate the Creator, unity, and the Light.

That is why the revelation of evil is a necessary and essential state at each stage. When I reveal the evil, it means that I join into it. I cannot see it from the side; I must completely submerge into it. I must feel it inside me, including Pharaoh, and Moshe (Moses), and the fight between them.

That is why our work consists only of attracting the Light that Reforms.[30694] From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”